Visit Ballard in Seattle, Washington

Here in Ballard, there is a lot of neighborhood clubs and people come from various part of the city to have a cold brew or a nice glass of wine, listening to some good music, and they seem to travel back in the theme and time of where people were down in this neighborhood from the Seaman’s industry—a lot of fisherman, a lot of folks traveling, you know, providing transportation for people to get you to and from. There are buildings here were are built during that era, so there is a lot of brick and modern buildings and a lot of folks that are still here from that era and that are running a lot of the business and still in some of the places. There are some neighborhood artists that still come around and do the various things like paint the landscapes of this area. Support your local Farmers Market, they got everything from oysters, clams, and mussels to photographs to painting that people paint, literature offered by folks who are trying to make their way coming up from a kind of a bad time in their life, fresh fruits and vegetables and during summer times, this place is screaming. But right now, it is kind of winter wears—it is the winter goods but still a worthy place. Music plays a large role in Ballard’s personality. The Tractor Taverns is kind of a main stay as the neighborhood, they play a lot of routes in Americana Music, they host artists such as Jeff Tweedy from Wilkolv-Gillian Welch, any of the no-depression artists and local artists aw well like Lee Rudy, like to play a hell of a show, feels even better when you got some booze in one of the events. And, there is a really, really great record store called the Bob Street records. The story is this man—he got a little bit of bread and he had a large collection of music that he wanted to share with the world. And he is not into this to make any money and we are to take a look in the amount of vinyl records he got here. Let us go ahead and take a step in. Heavy Metal/Gospel/Spiritual/New Age Children Music—I have never have heard of before. I bet if we lift up these cushions you will find some change—no, no change, but hey, it is still a good place to hang out if you do not have bus fare. There is a movement that came around, it was the LP Generate-Valor imaging to more of the destination spot if you will and some folks are opposed to that because of the extremes that some developers wanted to take this to, they want to put in the skinny buildings, tall condos, with various colors, that only those with six-figure incomes can afford, let us say San Francisco, can anybody say Manhattan, can anybody say what else, would be downtown Phoenix. But yes, I had these in old times staple as well. Looks like there is somebody protest in the development. That is great, there is one thing that you could say about Ballard, people are dedicated to whatever it is they do, whether it is fishing or sitting on a bar and saving the bar they loved. Well, here we are at the Fisherman’s Terminal were folks and boats go fishing for fish. They bring them back to us land dwellers for us to make a dish out of. Pete Knutsen: Yes, my name is Pete Knutsen. This is my boat N Jord and I am selling down here at Fisherman’s Terminal this weekend on a location here called the Western Wall and this is where we sell fish. Well yes, you see this land was donated to the poor fisherman and this is the only place that is left for us. They got Marino’s everywhere else. But these guys are on the poor, they buddies with the real estate guys and the guys like the bonds and they was just there about to put condos and business park down here. The idea that you can come from your home go directly to the fisherman at the terminal and buy the fish from him or her, the person you fish to fish out of the big drink is amazing. I mean that is one of the most beautiful things about Ballard. I have been hanging out in this town for about 15 years, making music and growing up as a human being. I am Christopher Blue and this is Ballard.